The former president of the...

POT SMUGGLING CHARGED.

December 21, 1989

- INDIANAPOLIS — POT SMUGGLING CHARGED. The former president of the Indianapolis League of Women Voters and her two sons were behind bars Wednesday after being extradited from Austria on charges of running a major marijuana smuggling ring. Linda Leary and Richard and Paul Heilbrunn are being held for a hearing Friday on whether to free them on bail before trial Feb. 13. ''The evidence we'll present will likely keep them detained,'' the prosecutor said. A 1987 indictment named them among 34 people charged with operating an 11-state ring that moved at least 250,000 pounds of marijuana - one of the biggest such drug operations ever uncovered. They were arrested in May in Austria. Before leaving the United States in 1985, Leary, 58, was president of the Indianapolis League of Women Voters and the local chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women. Paul Heilbrunn, 35, was a commodities broker and columnist for a local business journal. Richard Heilbrunn, 38, lived with his wife and two children on a farm outside Indianapolis.